Janice

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A female given name of English origin, often used to identify a woman or girl in personal or social contexts
2. A common personal name for females, typically used to refer to an individual in conversations or official records
3. A popular feminine proper noun used to designate women in narratives, communications, or official documents

Etymology: Janice is a Jane that picked up a different ending along the way. The name Jane is itself a variant of Jean, which comes from Old French Jeanne, and ultimately from the Hebrew "Yôḥānāh," meaning "God is gracious." That Hebrew form is the feminine of the name behind John, so Janice, Joan and Joanna are all close cousins. Its "-ice" ending most likely came from the similar-sounding names Alice, Bernice and Eunice, which was enough to give the name a distinct shape of its own. Just as "John" and "Jack" stand in for an unnamed man in English, Janice has long served as a stock name for a generic woman, a role Joan played before it. Speakers have used these familiar names as stand-ins so often that they came to sound like everyday choices rather than anything special.

Synonyms: female name